Purpose: Heartbeat of Creation

When "bad things happen to good people," by what standard does one define "bad"?

Judaism begins with the belief in a Creator of the entire universe. The history of our people commences with Avraham's question, "Who created the world?" (cf. Bereishis Rabbah 39:1). That question led him to the recognition of God as the Creator.

God existed prior to Creation, and that Creation remains dependent upon Him. Creation came into being as an expression of His will and is dependent on Him; it continues to exist only by virtue of a continued infusion of His creative energy. This is stated in the first of the Thirteen Principles of Faith based on Maimonides: "The Creator, Blessed is His Name, creates and guides all creatures, and He alone created, creates, and will create everything."

Intelligent beings do not act without some purpose, and certainly the Supreme Intelligence must be assumed to act in a purposeful fashion.

Now, if God created the world and continues to sustain it, He must have had some purpose. Intelligent beings do not act without some purpose, and certainly the Supreme Intelligence must be assumed to act in a purposeful fashion. Prior to Creation, God was complete unto Himself. He had no need for the world, for He lacked nothing. Indeed, as the Kabbalists put it, He had to make room for the world, as it were, through an act of voluntary contraction.

Creation, then, has a goal. A crucial corollary to this belief is: God created the world in such a way as to ensure that it would eventually reach the goal for which He intended it. No one invests his time and energy for no reason. And neither did God.

True, we often start projects with great expectations and subsequently find ourselves incapable of realizing our hopes for one reason or another. But we err if we project our own limitations onto God. We are incapable of accurately foreseeing all the intervening events that may prevent us from realizing our goal, and our abilities may prove unequal to our aspirations.

God, however, suffers no such limitations. First, it is another one of our fundamental beliefs that God has absolute foreknowledge of everything that will ever happen. Thus it is absurd to suggest that He created a world in which His very purpose in creating it could not be realized.

Furthermore, we, as human beings, try to manipulate the pre-existing materials of the world to achieve our purposes. But God did not create the world from pre-existing material. He is the source of all the raw material from which the world is formed. He imbued everything with its potential. It is impossible to imagine those raw materials acting in a manner contrary to God's will. Moreover, God exercises a constant veto power over the direction in which His creation is headed. Nothing continues to exist except because of His sustaining power.

These points are crucial. Though we believe that God created the universe, we are generally oblivious to the implications of our belief. We continue to relate to God as if He too were a part of Creation -- a bigger and stronger part, to be sure, but a part nevertheless -- rather than as the independent Creator of all that exists. Because of this laziness of thought, we project our own limitations onto God and cannot conceive of Him as capable of overseeing every aspect of Creation.

But when we make ourselves aware of God's true relationship to Creation, we realize that just as God created the world with a purpose so He has the capability to provide whatever guidance is required to accomplish that goal. That ability is Divine Providence. Divine Providence posits that not only did God create the world for a specific purpose -- a purpose which remains constant for all time -- but that He maintains a relationship with His Creation sufficient to ensure that those purposes are ultimately achieved.

A belief in randomness cannot be reconciled with Divine Providence.

The traditional Jewish belief in Divine Providence is thus the antithesis of the view that there is a realm in which randomness governs. A belief in randomness cannot be reconciled with Divine Providence.

One of the crucial corollaries to the belief in Divine Providence is that not only does Creation as a whole have a particular purpose, but so does every single aspect of that Creation. Among those aspects of the created world are our lives. And just as God directs the totality of Creation towards its ultimate goal, so does He direct our lives in such a way as to make it possible for us to fulfill our purpose.

This realization has profound implications for our entire self-perception. For if our lives have purpose, and if God is continually overseeing our lives to ensure that we retain the possibility of fulfilling our purpose, it is impossible that some totally random event could knock us out of the ballpark in such a way as to prevent us from reaching the goal for which we were destined.

Divine Providence guarantees that we are provided with the necessary environment to accomplish our specific tasks. Nothing can destroy that capability.

Divine Providence requires that I think to myself, "I was brought into the world for a reason. God invested in me, and every moment that I am breathing, it is only because He still has hope that I will accomplish the tasks for which I was created." That view cannot be reconciled with the view that my life may be taken away from me at any moment for no reason whatsoever, through the workings of chance.

Providence endows my life with significance. Randomness takes this away. How much value can there be to life that can be snatched away at any moment for no reason?

GOOD AND BAD

Harold Kushner asks how God can be good if our lives are not. Based on his perception of the quality of our lives, he proceeds to judge God and finds Him wanting -- too wanting, in fact, to believe that He has anything to do with the quality of our lives.

Judging God is a dangerous game, for it means employing the standards of our finite intelligence to judge His infinite intelligence.

Judging God is a dangerous game, for it means employing the standards of our finite intelligence to judge His infinite intelligence. Yet if we ask the question of why certain things are happening to us, not to judge God, but to clarify the nature of our relationship, the question is not only legitimate but essential. A failure to ask the question would itself betray a lack of trust in God, and imply that He has no connection to what happens to us. A faith too timid to confront these questions cannot anchor our sense of the deeper reality underlying the sensory world.

Now, it must be clear that Kushner's question presupposes a clear cut standard by which to evaluate the quality of our lives. He entitled his book When Bad Things Happen to Good People. But, if we look at his use of the terms "good" and "bad," it would appear that they are not being used consistently.

Kushner uses "good" and "bad" as synonyms for pleasant and unpleasant. A good life is a pleasant one in his view. As applied to people, he uses "good" to mean affable and pleasant. Classical Jewish thought, however, deals with the issue of the suffering of the "righteous" -- those who lead their lives consonant with God's Will.

The use of "good" and "bad" as synonyms for "pleasant" and "unpleasant" is not very satisfactory. Much that is pleasant nevertheless has very negative consequences, and that which is unpleasant can be very positive.

Smoking may be pleasant, but it kills. Many medicines are bitter -- some, like those used in chemotherapy, extremely so -- yet they can save lives.

In place of pleasant and unpleasant, Jewish thought insists on another standard of evaluation: purposeful and not purposeful. Nothing is more essential to our status as human beings than the pursuit of meaning in our lives. That quest grows from the fact that each of us is made up of a body that is physical, and which will eventually cease to exist, and a soul that is infinite.

The soul craves connection to the Infinite from which it came; a connection to something beyond the confines of the body and physical existence. That connection can only make sense in the context of a structure of meaning anchored outside the self. The search for such a structure in itself reflects the need of the soul for a connection to the Infinite.

The greatest pain that a human being can experience is the sense that the events of his or her life lack any purpose and are not directed towards any goal. Purpose is an essential aspect of all intelligent activity, and as intelligent beings the failure to find any purpose in our lives undermines our entire sense of self. Where a sense of purpose exists, we are able to endure incredible suffering, for that suffering does not violate the awareness of our essential humanity. On the other hand, where it is absent, there is only a sense of inner emptiness, no matter how many pleasurable sensations one experiences.

Once purpose becomes the yardstick by which we evaluate our lives, we are forced to identify the purpose of our lives. Since the quest for meaning reflects the quest of our souls for connection with the Infinite, that meaning or purpose must exist outside of ourselves. This quest for meaning inevitably leads us to ask: Why did God create us?

THE PURPOSE OF CREATION

Why did God create the world? What did He seek to accomplish? Obviously He needed nothing from the Creation since He is by definition complete and perfect unto Himself. "Need" implies that one lacks something, and God could not have lacked anything He Himself created.

To fully understand God's purpose would require knowledge of God prior to His interaction with His Creation -- i.e., knowledge of His essence, not just how He expresses Himself in human history -- and that is beyond the reach of human understanding. We can know nothing of God prior to Creation.

We must therefore turn to the Torah, as we do for all knowledge that is both essential and beyond our capacity to derive by ourselves. And when we look into the Torah, we find that God created the world out of a desire to give. As King David says in Psalms, "... a world which manifests Your loving kindness, You did build" (Psalms 89:3). Giving requires a receiver. So God created human beings to be the recipients of His bounty.

God's giving bears no comparison to our giving. When we reach into our pocket to give charity to a poor individual, for instance, we do so, in part, to relieve a feeling of discomfort caused by the sight of a fellow human being in need. Prior to Creation, however, there was nothing outside of God, nothing to arouse feelings of pity. Thus His desire to give was completely generated from within Himself. It was an expression of His overflowing goodness.

We human beings may give out of a variety of motivations, some good and some bad. Giving in order to aggrandize oneself at the expense of another or to manipulate another by fostering dependence fall into the latter category. Such giving is in reality taking. But since God needs nothing, His giving is never motivated by a desire to take. It is of necessity without taint of self-interest and solely for the benefit of the recipient.

As a perfect giver, God wants to give the perfect gift. That gift is the possibility of a connection with God Himself, for He Himself is the source of all true good. Therefore God created a being who is capable of cleaving to Him.

God could give endlessly, but that would not be for our ultimate good as recipients. Indeed, it would ultimately destroy the possibility of giving at all. Were God's goodness to flow automatically to us, we would cease to be independent beings and become mere extensions of Him. The first condition of giving -- the existence of an entity distinct from the giver -- would be destroyed.

True giving, then, is predicated on the existence of the human self. Free gifts undermine our sense of self. When we receive something without earning it or being worthy of it, we disappear in the awareness of our total dependence upon the giver. Anyone who has received an undeserved gift recognizes this. As much as we might enjoy the gift itself, we experience an embarrassment that is akin to a little death of self.

We enjoy that which is the product of our efforts far more than any gift. A person prefers one kav (a measure of 2.2 liters) of his own produce to nine kav of others, say our Sages (Bava Metzia 38a) precisely because that kav represents the fruits of his own efforts. Similarly, a teenager who works for a year to buy an old Ford, which he himself then keeps running smoothly, derives more pleasure from it than a peer who borrows his father's BMW whenever he wants. It makes no difference that the BMW is the better car, for it represents nothing of his own efforts.

We prefer what we earn over what is given to us because the desire to earn reflects the underlying nature of reality. Creation, as an expression of God's giving, is only comprehensible in the context of our capacity to earn His bounty, for only that capacity makes us independent recipients.

Now we can understand why God does not simply give us everything that we want, unrelated to our worthiness to receive. To do so would not be to our benefit, for we would lose our ability to enter into a relationship with God. And giving which is not for our good would itself not be consistent with God's desire to give.

Note that this description of God's giving also imposes obligations upon us. For if the sole purpose of Creation is only that God be able to give, then we have a reciprocal obligation to make ourselves the worthy recipients of His bounty. Our failure to do so stymies the purpose of Creation itself.

This description of God's purpose provides us with an entirely new measuring stick to evaluate our lives. No longer will we judge our lives in terms of pleasure and pain, for pleasure and pain do not by themselves provide meaning to life. True, we still hope that our lives will be pleasurable, but even very great pain need not raise fundamental questions about God's goodness. For even great pain may be judged good if it prepares us for our purpose in life, which is to enter into a relationship with God. From this standpoint, our maturity as Jews is measured by the degree to which we define ourselves, not in terms of our immediate circumstances, but in terms of our ultimate goal of becoming worthy of receiving from God.

Viewing life through the perspective of purpose forces us to ask: Is my pain bringing me closer to my ultimate goal in life?

Applying the standard of purpose to judge the events of our lives dramatically alters our perspective on the challenge that suffering poses to faith. We typically perceive human suffering as unjust, and thus a contradiction to our belief in a just God. Purpose, however, broadens our frame of reference in such a way that the question disappears.

Viewing life through the perspective of purpose forces us to ask: Is my pain bringing me closer to my ultimate goal in life? To answer that question requires a good deal more information than simply evaluating the degree of present suffering. The relevant time frame now includes the future. In order to justify God's ways, we are no longer limited to evaluating present experiences as responses to past actions; our present experiences are also opportunities for future growth. A particular experience, for instance, may offer such potential for growth as to far outweigh the immediate pain.

We are not prophets, and so we cannot know the future. But all of us know from personal experience that what appears to us today as a devastating setback may turn out to be the source of our greatest blessing. Certainly we know many who have reached their fullest potential as human beings only in the face of adversity.

Judgments based on the narrow lens of the present must be tempered by the knowledge that we are observing only a small fraction of the relevant tableau. The present pain threatens to overwhelm all else and obscure the magnitude of the reward that potentially awaits us. That reward, as we shall see in the next chapter, is far greater than any pleasure in this world. But without awareness of its existence, we lack the tools to properly assess whether our present suffering is "worth it."

Asking ourselves whether present suffering is purposeful -- i.e., is it bringing us closer to God -- not only helps us reevaluate suffering that seems undeserved, but also that which may appear to us to be deserved. If someone does something wrong, and subsequently something bad happens to him or her, the natural tendency is to chalk up the latter event as some form of punishment from God -- the just desserts of his action, as it were.

Yet there is no such concept in the Torah of God meting out punishment in this world. God never simply inflicts pain as punishment, for such punishment has nothing to do with His purpose in creating the world. His purpose was to give. What we term "deserved suffering" from our perspective is not designed to punish, but rather to make it possible for God to give to the person thus afflicted, either by purging him of impurities caused by his sins or by directing him back to the correct path. What we perceive as "punishments" are pathways to enable man to come closer to God.

CHOOSING LIFE

We might still ask: If God created the world in order to give, why must He be the one to define the nature of the gift? If we are content with the immediate pleasures of this world, why can't God just give us these? Why must we accept pain and suffering as prods to return us to a path leading to closeness to God? After all, true giving is for the benefit of the recipient, not the one giving. Why can't we choose the good we want to receive? Why must our lives run according to His standard?

From what we have already said, the answer to these questions should be apparent. Man's search for meaning, as described above, is the quest of a soul seeking to break free of the constraints of the finite body to fulfill a purpose that has been determined outside of itself. That external standard is established by God, the Infinite Other, Who stands completely independent of us.

God imbued the universe with purpose. He created us in order to make possible the most perfect gift, a relationship with Him. Anything that does not facilitate that relationship is by definition devoid of meaning and deters us from the purpose for which we were created.

The above questions betray a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of our existence. They start with the attitude that having been brought into existence against our will, we nevertheless possess our lives once here. We, not God, should determine the conditions of our further existence.

The Jewish view, however, is the opposite. Our existence requires God's continual support every moment. Were He to cease to sustain us for even one instant, we would vanish completely. And He only continues to support our existence as a vehicle for reaching the goals for which we were brought into this world in the first place. God wants us to choose life over death. If we choose not to draw close to Him, we are effectively choosing death. By pursuing the pleasures of the world we cut ourselves off from Him.

Because of His desire to give, God cannot simply let us kill ourselves (though we may eventually succeed). Imagine a father who gives his college-bound son a credit card. Rather than using the credit card for school expenses, the son uses the credit card for drugs and fast cars. One day the father receives news that his son overdosed in his new sports car. Needless to say he immediately cancels his son's credit card. The father did not give his son a credit card to facilitate his self-destruction, and will show no sympathy to his son's protestations that he is entitled to use the credit card as he wishes.

Similarly, God does everything in His power to keep us from destroying ourselves, which is what we do when we render ourselves unfit to receive His bounty.

About the Author

Visitor Comments: 24

(23)
Rachel,
June 25, 2013 5:42 AM

Still genuinely perplexed

R. Kirzner writes: "the desire to earn reflects the underlying nature of reality," in an attempt to explain why things must be as they are in this world. But G-d is the One Who created "the underlying nature of reality." G-d could have made "the underlying nature of reality" anything He wanted it to be. So why didn't the all-powerful and benevolent G-d create an "underlying nature of reality" in which humans only had to undergo pleasant things in order to connect to Him and to fulfill the purpose of the world? G-d is not bound by logic. He established the very conditions of logic and could have made them something totally different from how it currently is. This is why all logical attempts to explain human suffering ultimately fall short. I believe that there is an answer to this age-old conundrum, but as G-d told Moses, no living person will ever know it. R. Kirzner, if you have a response to this, I sincerely desire to hear it. In the meantime, I will keep working on my faith and humility, so that I can conform myself to G-d's will, instead of trying to make His will conform to mine.

(22)
Giuseppi,
January 27, 2013 5:03 PM

Totally disagree with Rabbi Kirzner

There is no way that my loving God would use the killings at Sandy Hook Elementary so that members of His creation would use the suffering of this tragedy to become closer to Him! Just like the father who cannot control what the son does with the gift of the credit card our God does not control what we do on a daily basis. I simply take solace in that when bad things happen I can go to Him and ask for help and support. There is no doubt in my mind that each one of us has the power to do good and to do evil. God does not push us towards one or the other, but lets us know what is the right thing to do and then we choose. Unfortunately, we make the wrong choices quite often. Sometime, this wrong choice brings pain to others, whether to a spouse or family member, or a larger community. I do not walk out my front door each day wondering if my God will involve me in a car accident that day in which I get killed so that my family can grow closer to Him by way of suffering. Instead, when I can get my head out of my list of things that need to be done for that day, I give him thanks for one more day of life.

(21)
Anonymous,
December 28, 2012 11:21 AM

Rabbi Kirzner makes a lot more sense to me than Rabbi Kushner

A G-d who has created a world where G-d refuses to act on behalf of G-d's creations is pretty much like the father who lets the son misuse the credit card to his ruin without interfering.
A G-d who CAN'T interfere in the affairs of humans because of powerlessness isn't worthy of the name G-d and offers NO solace to me personally.
I'd much rather cast my lot with a G-d who knows me intimately, loves me deeply and is able and willing to redeem all creation and bring it safely home. There is still a mystery to deep suffering, yes, but I'd rather look for G-d IN that suffering and trust that there's a reason for it I can't yet know.

(20)
DL,
April 3, 2012 5:06 AM

Two more cents

OK, so the author states "Providence endows my life with significance. Randomness takes this away. How much value can there be to life that can be snatched away at any moment for no reason?". Yet, life can be "snatched away" at any moment under either scenario - the only difference is whether you would call it part of God's plan, or would call it random. The randomness-vs-order concept makes a LOT of sense (ie. God being some sort of an anti-randomness agent, for lack of a better description). My belief is that God does not WANT bad things to happen, but can't always stop them - that's why we humans are on a constant, neverending quest to create order for ourselves in our lives. If your husband falls down to the ground clutching at his heart, you will rush to call 911 and do CPR. You would fight against the randomness. Otherwise, if it's "God's plan", then why do anything about it? Personally, I find lots of solace in the belief that life is a temporary jail sentence where we are put through 75 or so years of hard labor to learn compassion, responsibility, sharing, and love, and after death we are freed from the burdens of having to live in a chaotic, dangerous, stressful, traumatizing world. The order-vs-chaos thing is also basic physics. Systems naturally move toward entropy. We humans don't like entropy, we like order - in fact we are made out of ordered systems of molecules, cells, organs, etc., and we create order in the universe - active order-creating agents, "made in the image and likeness" of the original order-creator.

(19)
Cathy,
December 23, 2011 4:16 PM

Agreed

I agree totally with Rabbi Kushner. And to rebutt hte author's statement about "God not being able to control what he created".... He CHOOSES not to control it like a magic trick so that we may live life in it's natural state with our own choices.
The author probably lost half his readers with the initial statement that Rabbi Kirshner provides no solace....quite the contrary, it was literally faith saving to me to finally see the truth.

(18)
Tifany,
January 21, 2011 4:21 AM

I don't buy it

I read Kushner's book and agree with it completely. I would love to know what the author of this article thinks God's purpose is in letting children get abused and killed? Why would we love a God who intentionally let this happen? God gave us free will, he is not pulling our strings like puppets!!

(17)
Arthur,
March 1, 2010 2:37 PM

I realize this is only an excerpt

but
this does not answer the fundamental question, if we are to learn something from suffering, why does someone else have to pay the ultimate price? Why did my daughter have to die in order for me to learn something?
this book or excerpt does not answer that question

Debra,
November 9, 2011 9:56 PM

I wonder the same thing every day

I cannot reconcile that there was any purpose for my 24 year old daughter's death at the hands of the doctors who were supposed to be helping her.

(16)
Laura,
February 2, 2010 9:25 PM

Haitian Children

I am concerned about the children being taken by the church group that are currently detained in Haiti. This group of individuals clearly were breaking the law by taking children from parents even though some parents may have permitted them to take their children. This organization lied to CNN by claiming they believed all of the children were orphans. They claim to have good intentions but why would let tell these children's parents they would provide for them a better life? What was their intent for taking children from parents? I don't understand what this group was up to. I hope CNN keeps looking into this matter in order to shed light on what organizations may be doing that could ultimately harm children. Thank you.

(15)
Anonymous,
November 20, 2009 4:29 PM

The truth is both are right. Those who love God and try to walk with God on a daily basis can rely on God for help in times of trouble and when tragedy strikes (example of Job), there is a higher purpose and meaning and God certainly comes to their aid and comfort. It's funny, people who don't give God the time of day will all of a sudden blame Him and get angry at Him for bad things that happen to them. Because Job had a relationship with God, He didn't blame God, but instead remained true to his relationship with God.

(14)
Ed,
February 24, 2009 10:50 AM

To err is human

....'But we err if we project our own limitations onto God'
we also err if/when we project onto God our human concept of intelligence and its consequences

(13)
marilyn,
December 28, 2006 10:31 AM

meaning to suffering in my life

The previous comment was mixed up.

I just want to say after reading the article I came to believe that there is meaning to my suffering. Never understood why I had to suffer as a child and all my suffering has indeed brought me to G-d. When I read his book it left me uncomfortable and didn't ring true. I can connect the dots for the first time in my life.

(12)
philipwhite,
December 19, 2006 11:34 AM

Trouble in life

You have wrote a interesting article that i can under stand. The one thing is if you cant find a propose then you just die? I ask this because I am having trouble in find propose I my life things are not going so well but like you have wrote I have experience good (pleasurable) and felt empty a few days later. I am making attempts to reconnect to g-d but am having trouble doing so. Thank you

(11)
DanaGulick,
November 17, 2006 12:14 PM

God directs all but why does it require so much apparent senseless pain for the purpose of Divine Providence.

let's connect the dots: A:God has Divine Providence by which creation has a purpose for Mankind. B:But Free will is in the image of God so mankind has the opportunity to create good or evil depending upon personal decision making. C: Problem! How does that connection of dots lead to the apparent senseless pain of so many innocent individuals so mankind can learn a object lesson on how to appreciate God's goodness? What's wrong with this picture? Yes I pray to Hashem every day as simple Jew but does God as the supreme parent subject mankind to pain because he need it to become more into the grace of God, to heal the world or is mankind just the victim of the laws of nature set out by God who plays hide and seek with us. I know the drill, as King David was told in pslams 35 that we are not entitled to know the length or measure of our days the Divine plan will remain an unexplained mystery. I-E God is off the hoof for being responsible for the pain in the world. Remember what the good Rabbi wrote, pain is good for the soul!!!!

(10)
LawrenceBerman,
November 13, 2006 8:50 PM

Where is free will?

"God, however, suffers no such limitations. First, it is another one of our fundamental beliefs that God has absolute foreknowledge of everything that will ever happen. Thus it is absurd to suggest that He created a world in which His very purpose in creating it could not be realized.

Furthermore, we, as human beings, try to manipulate the pre-existing materials of the world to achieve our purposes. But God did not create the world from pre-existing material. He is the source of all the raw material from which the world is formed. He imbued everything with its potential. It is impossible to imagine those raw materials acting in a manner contrary to God's will. Moreover, God exercises a constant veto power over the direction in which His creation is headed. Nothing continues to exist except because of His sustaining power."

If God has complete foreknowledge of everything that will happen and if the raw materials of the world can never act in a manner contrary to God's will and God exercises complete veto power over hte direction his creation is headed, then where is free will? Then we have no control over our lives. If we repent, then God knew we would repent and it would have been inevidablefor us to repent so repenting was not our choice but part of God's foreknowledge. Because, if God knows we will repent, then we must because if we don't God is wrong and that isn't possible. One answer to this conflict is that God pulls back and relinquishs foreknowledge and control to allow us free will. That gives God a choice not to know and not to control and eliminates the conflict by God's withdrawing, not only to make room, but to allow life to live. Then suffering becomes not a plan of God but the natural outgrowth of the seeds God planted and, whether random or not, are in the control of us to make better or worse. God can intervene but chooses not to. After all, our children must grow up and live like adults and we have to let go but be there at the same time. If we are to fulfill God's mission for us to be a light unto the world and a nation of priests and create the wiorl God expects, God has to step back and let us grow up or fail.

(9)
Andy,
November 13, 2006 3:42 PM

step of faith seems necessary

Certainly we know many who have reached their fullest potential as human beings only in the face of adversity." We also know many who are in mental hospitals or have commit ed suicide in the face of adversity. I tend to agree with Rabbi Kirzner but it seems to come down to at least a step of faith. With all the talk of clarity it seems unclear. Rabbi Nachman is credited with saying one can truly want something good and not yet be worthy to receive it.[so keep trying again and again while building one's character] Maybe clarity falls into that category.re the retired DR who asked where was God at Buchenwald? If you lose one child as did Rabbi Kushner or 6 million strangers I'd guess the pain is greater if it's your child. The fact that God allows things to happen that men would be condemned for is a mystery but does not change who God is.In Torah God commands us not to make graven images. He then commands us to make cherubs of gold to adorn the ark in the temple.Go figure or to be more precise we can't.We can try and make his will our will.AS Hillel is said to have said now go and learn.

(8)
daniela,
November 13, 2006 9:36 AM

Interesting article

I think our suffering will not be reconciled and understood by us--never. We operate in short frame of time. I know that Holocaust comes to mind, and I struggled to understand where was G-d, how could he take my family that was so good? But I looked at the history if there is some connection. When Jews were coming to the homeland? When were they rebuilding their homeland? Few left Europe to go to Israel before the war.It was awful place, with malaria, hostile arabs (some things never change) so much work needed to be done. It needed not 10,100 but thousands of hard working, motivated people with purpose, motivation, passion for G-d and homeland. It was acceptance that this place is home and there is no turning back. Could this be HaShem taking Jews back home? My family was well situated in Europe. Sounds good, right. Or perhaps this was curse. There were many Jews leaving antisemtic worlds before the war because they were desparate, poor. Many came to America at the beginning of 20th century. What looked like curse,turned to blessing. Not being able to support family, was motivation for leaving, survival, and prosperity for the next generations in the new land. I can't imagine person can understand reasons. But HaShem knows today and the future. I think it is sad to say, but we are motivated by crisis, not by the goodness and comfort bestowed upon us. I pray for goodness, but I am aware that I am praying harder when there is crisis.

(7)
Anonymous,
November 13, 2006 7:39 AM

Free giving...

A superb article, though I would disagree with the statement, "Free gifts undermine our sense of self. When we receive something without earning it or being worthy of it, we disappear in the awareness of our total dependence upon the giver."Have you ever brought someone a gift simply to show how much you appreciate them? To pick them up when they're feeling down? Do you refuse hospitality b/c someone doesn't seem worthy? Do you stop loving your children when they misbehave? By your reasoning, we should never give 'unearned' gifts and we should stop loving (a gift of ourselves) when people stop 'deserving' it.Unconditional love is what the Creator gives us - He loves us no matter how far we stray from Him, and we should do the same to others - whether it's listening when they're down, or loving them no matter what, or feeding the poor around the world. We should learn to give freely of ourselves without expectation of return on the part of the giver nor any judgment on the 'merit' of the receiver. Only HaShem can truly judge what is in each one of our hearts.And no, when I receive an 'unmerited' gift, I am not embarrassed nor is my sense of self undermined...in fact, it is enhanced - b/c I know I am loved for *myself*, not for what I *do*. I am truly grateful to the human giver and to HaShem, and vow to pass on the goodness that has been done to me.

(6)
Anonymous,
November 12, 2006 10:16 PM

Have one BIG question ---

I was born a Jew, but only confirmed! Nonetheless, I adhear to the Jewish ethic -- but belief in the Deity?Come back with me to April 10th, 11th, or number 12 -- the year 1945! We are still arguing which was the correct date! I was a nineteen year old nfantry-man with the 87th Infantry Division, 3rd Army, when we freed Buchenwald -- This is something one never forgets! It sure makes one wonder "where was God?" to have stood by and allow those six million to be systematically exterminated. I am sure you have heard this before! But I must ask it again!Would appreciate your comments! I am a retired Urological surgeon (now age 81) -- did some 12000 operations over 32 years!

Robert M. Frank, M.D.

(5)
MoshehWolfish,
November 12, 2006 7:09 PM

Or history did not commence with a (Avraham's) question

In reality, the history of our people did not commence with the question, "Who created the world?" It really began with Avraham's recognizing that there IS a world - meaning, order and not chaos, anarchy or randomness. He came to understand that the theology that was accepted, a pantheon of gods, could not produce the ordered world which sustains life. When he recognized the Unity and Purpose in the World, THEN he sought to answer, "Where/Who is THE (one and only) owner of this estate/world?" Furthermore, he recognized that the Forces (gods) in the world all were subservient to the purpose of sustaining life (lovingkindness/chessed). He then chose to emulate his Creator by selflessly dedicating his life to doing kindness.

(4)
Manasseh,
November 12, 2006 7:03 PM

Creator Versus Created

Thankyou Rabbi Yitzak Kirzner for your endeavour in attemtpting to tackle this most elusive and profound subjectI am a theologian but above all a believer in Hashem.In my life I have gone through very traumatic situations and I cannot deny that the question on bad things happening to good people has risen.One day I was reading in Shemos/Exodus 3:13; Where Moses asked Hashem; "Behold when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, The God of your forefathers has sent me to you,' and they say to me what is His name? -What shall I say to them?Hashem answered, "I Shall Be As I Shall Be"If I'm not wrong that statement was in the past, present and continous tense.Though so simple a child can understand it, yet its meaning is wider than the horizon and its meaning and implications are higher and deeper than human comprehension.Moses asked a simple human question expecting a simple human answerThis man Mosese has been striped of princehood and now is living as a pauper in the desert instead of a palace and his subjects were animals and now Hashem is sending him back to the powerful with only a stick/rod in his hand and a promise; the Intangible, Invisible and yet Undeniable HashemI therefore decided to trust and obey since my finite mind is icapable of fully comprehending the Infinite

When I visited Yisrael I had the good fortune of being a guest to a farmer who was pruning his fruitrees.

In my ignorance I asked him why he is destroying the trees that he just finished telling me they gave him a great years produce,

His answer was, "Indeed it looks like I am destroying and to the trees it must feel like distruction , but if you came back next year, you'll be suprised at the produce"

(3)
Anonymous,
November 12, 2006 4:56 PM

Purpose

After reading this article I think I'll stick with Kushner. At least Kushner makes an attempt to help other understand how to cope with real suffering and how to apply this to the world at large. I may be a jew and see the world through a different value system but I am not an island nor is the rest of the jewish world and suffering extends to all of humanity and it's repercussions affect us all. True, jews need to react in a positive way to the suffering that they see in the world but to simply accept this as G-d's will is to negate the value of those that are truly suffering. Does G-d allow the suffering of innocents so that I can learn a lesson? Is that their only value in this world? While your article was full of lofty and intellectual ideals of accepting all things that happen as a matter of faith in G-d it offered nothing in regards to the suffering of innocents. I can certainly accept my own physical illness and that of close family members and faith is the reason but I cannot accept that it's G-d's plan that my cousin suffered a horrific and violent death or that the children my brother treats in his hospital, that have suffered unspeakable cruelty is "acceptable". I would hope that you can come down out of the clouds and see true suffering and relate your message again in laymans terms and in a way that helps ignorants like me to understand exactly how this all in G-d's plan.

(2)
Anonymous,
November 12, 2006 2:40 PM

too simplistic

This discussion is too simplistic & moreover, reflects the answers given by Job's friends & wife which we are given to understand cannot answer the unanswerable question of "Why is there evil in a world created & sustained by a purely good G-d?" It avoids dealing with The Holocaust and all the other holocausts still happening (Eg: Darfur). Did the 6 million die because they were not close enough to G-d? Are the people of Darfur dying because they are not on the right path to G-d? Don't assume we readers are so naive or so simple that we will swallow this pap....

(1)
Tony,
November 12, 2006 11:02 AM

Randomness is everything

Why does randomness have to be reconciled with Divine Providence. We can prove or disprove randomness but devine providence is an abstract idea of an invisible something in the sky that cannot be proven or disproven. The traditional Jewish belief in Divine Providence is based on myth not reason. Man without this mystic belief system can be just as motivated toward achieving moral and ethical standards.

I live in rural Montana where the Cholov Yisrael milk is difficult to obtain and very expensive. So I drink regular milk. What is your view on this?

The Aish Rabbi Replies:

Jewish law requires that there be rabbinic supervision during the milking process to ensure that the milk comes from a kosher animal. In the United States, many people rely on the Department of Agriculture's regulations and controls as sufficiently stringent to fulfill the rabbinic requirement for supervision.

Most of the major Kashrut organizations in the United States rely on this as well. You will therefore find many kosher products in America certified with a 'D' next to the kosher symbol. Such products – unless otherwise specified on the label – are not Cholov Yisrael and are assumed kosher based on the DOA's guarantee.

There are many, however, do not rely on this, and will eat only dairy products that are designated as Cholov Yisrael (literally, "Jewish milk"). This is particularly true in large Jewish communities, where Cholov Yisrael is widely available.

Rabbi Moshe Feinstein wrote that under limited conditions, such as an institution which consumes a lot of milk and Cholov Yisrael is generally unavailable or especially expensive, American milk is acceptable, as the government supervision is adequate to prevent non-kosher ingredients from being added.

It should be added that the above only applies to milk itself, which is marketed as pure cow's milk. All other dairy products, such as cheeses and butter, may contain non-kosher ingredients and always require kosher certification. In addition, Rabbi Feinstein's ruling applies only in the United States, where government regulations are considered reliable. In other parts of the world, including Europe, Cholov Yisrael is a requirement.

There are additional esoteric reasons for being stringent regarding Cholov Yisrael, and because of this it is generally advisable to consume only Cholov Yisroel dairy foods.

In 1889, 800 Jews arrived in Buenos Aires, marking the birth of the modern Jewish community in Argentina. These immigrants were fleeing poverty and pogroms in Russia, and moved to Argentina because of its open door policy of immigration. By 1920, more than 150,000 Jews were living in Argentina. Juan Peron's rise to power in 1946 was an ominous sign, as he was a Nazi sympathizer with fascist leanings. Peron halted Jewish immigration to Argentina, introduced mandatory Catholic religious instruction in public schools, and allowed Argentina to become a haven for fleeing Nazis. (In 1960, Israeli agents abducted Adolf Eichmann from a Buenos Aires suburb.) Today, Argentina has the largest Jewish community in Latin America with 250,000, though terror attacks have prompted many young people to emigrate. In 1992, the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires was bombed, killing 32 people. In 1994, the Jewish community headquarters in Buenos Aires was bombed, killing 85 people. The perpetrators have never been apprehended.

Be aware of what situations and behaviors give you pleasure. When you feel excessively sad and cannot change your attitude, make a conscious effort to take some action that might alleviate your sadness.

If you anticipate feeling sad, prepare a list of things that might make you feel better. It could be talking to a specific enthusiastic individual, running, taking a walk in a quiet area, looking at pictures of family, listening to music, or reading inspiring words.

While our attitude is a major factor in sadness, lack of positive external situations and events play an important role in how we feel.

[If a criminal has been executed by hanging] his body may not remain suspended overnight ... because it is an insult to God (Deuteronomy 21:23).

Rashi explains that since man was created in the image of God, anything that disparages man is disparaging God as well.

Chilul Hashem, bringing disgrace to the Divine Name, is one of the greatest sins in the Torah. The opposite of chilul Hashem is kiddush Hashem, sanctifying the Divine Name. While this topic has several dimensions to it, there is a living kiddush Hashem which occurs when a Jew behaves in a manner that merits the respect and admiration of other people, who thereby respect the Torah of Israel.

What is chilul Hashem? One Talmudic author stated, "It is when I buy meat from the butcher and delay paying him" (Yoma 86a). To cause someone to say that a Torah scholar is anything less than scrupulous in meeting his obligations is to cause people to lose respect for the Torah.

Suppose someone offers us a business deal of questionable legality. Is the personal gain worth the possible dishonor that we bring not only upon ourselves, but on our nation? If our personal reputation is ours to handle in whatever way we please, shouldn't we handle the reputation of our nation and the God we represent with maximum care?

Jews have given so much, even their lives, for kiddush Hashem. Can we not forego a few dollars to avoid chilul Hashem?

Today I shall...

be scrupulous in all my transactions and relationships to avoid the possibility of bringing dishonor to my God and people.

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